Ags edge UC Riverside in final minute
They did it again.
The Utah State men’s basketball team improved to 15-1, 7-0 in Big West Conference play, and extended its winning streak to 12 with a 62-58 defeat of UC Riverside Saturday night.
“You just feel real fortunate and real proud of our guys,” said Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill. “They just never gave in.”
Late in the second half the Ags found themselves trailing UCR 58-57. With 1:08 left in regulation Nate Harris scored what proved to be the game-winning basket off a Cardell Butler pass from the right corner and put the Aggies up 59-58.
“They probably thought they had the game won,” Harris said. “We just hung tough, got some key stops at the end and executed well at the offensive end. We came away with a steal.”
Harris, who set a career-high in scoring with 22 points Thursday in Fullerton, finished the night with a new career-high of 25 points. Harris also had nine rebounds and two assists in 35 minutes of play.
“Nate Harris flat carried us,” Morrill said. “He didn’t get very much rest. He had to play. There was no taking him out.”
The Highlanders were led by postmen Nate Carter and Vili Morton. Carter finished the night with 16 points and nine rebounds. Morton added 14 points and four rebounds despite limited play due to early foul trouble.
The Aggies jumped out to an early 5-2 lead over Riverside – the largest USU advantage until the final 12.3 seconds of the game. Fueled by 10 Aggie turnovers, the Highlanders countered with an 8-0 run to take the lead for most of the first half.
“They made some perimeter shots and we were trying to shut that down,” Harris said.
Riverside, which hit 11 three-pointers in a 72-65 victory over the Aggies last February, finished Saturday’s game with seven field goals from behind the arc.
“We let them get away from us,” Morrill said. “One of our goals was to hold them to only five [three-point field goals], and they got seven, which is too many.”
After trailing by as much as nine, the Ags rallied behind dominant rebounding and three-straight Mike Ahmad baskets to close the gap; and at the half USU held a 28-27 advantage. Ahmad finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds.
“They were trying to guard us one-on-one in the post. They weren’t doubling down,” Harris said. “[Coach Morrill] stressed pounding it inside to me and Ahmad.”
Riverside came out firing in the second half and reclaimed a seven-point advantage. The Aggies were stuck playing catch-up for the final 12 minutes before Harris converted a layup to give him his 25th point and put the Aggies ahead.
“That was our ‘dribble play.’ That’s a play we’ve ran for years,” Harris said. “It’s been our bread and butter when we need a
basket.”
With less than a minute to play a staunch USU defense forced Riverside’s Carter to miss on an awkward fade-away jump shot and the Ags were able to secure the rebound.
“That was the shot I wanted him to take,” Harris said. “He was getting easy layups before that, so to force him into a turn-around jumper was just what I wanted.”
Down the stretch, Butler and senior guard Mark Brown hit free throws to cement the victory for the Aggies. Butler, who was coming off a season-low five points against Fullerton, finished the game with eight points and three assists.
“Cardell hadn’t had a great night and he got a little frustrated in the first half,” Morrill said. “He hung in there like everybody else and made some passes and free throws and did a nice job down the stretch.”
USU was again without junior forward Spencer Nelson (11.6 points, 9.2 rebounds) who broke his nose in practice last Tuesday. Nelson is questionable for Thursday’s game in Logan.
“I’d love to have him back to carry some of these minutes for me,” Harris said.
In an effort to match up with the Aggie’s size, Riverside’s Head Coach John Masi employed his sixth lineup of the year, moving the 6-foot-7 Carter to small forward and starting David Jobe at the power forward position.
“[Masi] was trying to get a physical guy on Nate, and also trying to give us a match-up problem trying to guard Carter,” Morrill said. “But when you lose a tough ball game in overtime, like [Riverside] did to Idaho, as a coach you sometimes shake it up.”
After being out-rebounded in Thursday’s match-up with CS Fullerton, the Ags returned to dominance on the glass outrebounding the Highlanders 35-28.
“We’ve slipped in that area the past couple of games. So we really made it a point to come out and really pound them on the boards tonight,” Harris said.
With the victory the Ags completed their second consecutive road sweep of the season.
“It was just a great weekend for us,” Harris said. “Hopefully we can build some momentum from it.”
The Aggies return to Logan this week to begin a four-game home stand. First up for the Ags is UC Irvine who will make its first appearance in the Spectrum this season. Tip-off is at 8:05 p.m. Thursday. The game will be televised locally on KJZZ.
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